Our foray into the world of juicing.

After watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead on Netflix, the hubs and I immediately bought a juicer.  The documentary is quite persuasive, lol.   The fact of the matter is, we don't eat nearly enough fruits and vegetables, and when I buy a bunch of produce with all the good intentions of eating it, I end up throwing away all that money because the fruit spoils and the veggies shrivel and we never get them eaten.  I thought that juicing would be a great way to get all of those great vitamins and nutrients in my body (and in my kids' bodies!) in a delicious way.

Slowly but surely, I'm turning into a hippy

I like to think that I'm merely taking steps to benefit the overall health of my family (and save money in the process!), my family thinks that it's just a matter of time before I'm sporting dreadlocks, tie dye, and am sitting in a drum circle.

Pizza Rolls!

As a kid, I always loved pizza rolls.  They're small, fun to eat, and of course, PIZZA!  It was a fun treat that we always looked forward to.  Now that I'm a mom and I have C's sensitive tummy to worry about, the preservatives and additives and frying that goes into the frozen pizza rolls just doesn't appeal to me as something I want to feed my kid.  I found a recipe for homemade, baked pizza rolls on Pinterest and was so excited!!  I made them and they were delicious, but the next time I went to make them, the recipe had disappeared!  I followed the same link, but the page was gone and I was sad.  Luckily, I worked off of memory and I think I got it right, so here you go!  These are so much healthier than the fried version, and I think they taste better, too!

Update and Family Pictures!

Wow, I can't believe M is already over six weeks old!  The hubs has gone back to work (happy for him, sad for me) and I'm adjusting to being on my own at home with both kids.  It's not always easy, especially when a certain toddler thinks he doesn't need naps anymore, but so far it hasn't been too stressful **knock on wood**.  I'm sure I'll have some hard days, but thankfully I have a couple of pretty awesome kids :)

After the fact: Birth Story Part 2

There isn't much left to my story, but my last post was getting really long.  I didn't exactly get the peaceful, calm birth I envisioned during my natural birth classes, but I'm glad I did it and I'm proud of myself.  Honestly I didn't set out to have a natural birth because I wanted the experience, I did it in the hopes of having a quicker recovery and a healthier baby.  I have gotten both of those, so it was worth it.

Welcome Maeve!! My birth story; Part 1

We are now a family of four :) Maeve Elizabeth joined us on January 4th, 2012, 4 days past her due date.

I had Braxton Hicks contractions pretty much my whole pregnancy; I started noticing them around 20 weeks.  I was very uncomfortable at the end of my pregnancy, it was a lot worse than when I was pregnant with my son.  I had back pain, sciatic pain that made walking really hard, rib pain, etc.  I was trying so hard to cherish my pregnancy and not wish her out sooner than she was ready, but I was pretty miserable, lol.  At 35 1/2 weeks I took a trip to the hospital for frequent contractions; not painful, just more often than my midwife was happy with. I got a shot to stop the contractions because we needed at least a couple more weeks. I was back in a week later at 36 1/2 weeks for the same thing (more often than before), but since I was so close to full term they skipped the shot, but I was on bed rest for 4 days to get me to 37 weeks.

37 weeks came... and went.  Then we had Christmas, then my New Year's Eve due date came and went, and I was getting anxious.  I was already 4 cm dilated, so it was just a matter of getting the real thing going.  My last few appointments I had my midwife sweep my membranes in the hopes of jump starting labor, but she just wasn't ready to join us.

January 3rd, I started noticing that my contractions were different.  They were coming every 10-15 minutes, which wasn't new because that had been happening for weeks, but they felt different.  A bit more uncomfortable, just "off".  I told my husband that I thought something was starting to happen, but I wasn't going to get too excited.  Later that night (around 1 am on the 4th) I thought that it was definitely happening, but I needed rest, so I made myself sleep.  I didn't want to start labor on zero sleep!!  I had contractions throughout the night, but was able to rest.

Update, 37 weeks tomorrow

Little Miss has been keeping us on our toes!  When I was pregnant with C, I didn't have any contractions at all.  I may have had one or two Braxton Hicks, but pretty much nothing until I was induced, and then I got the epidural ASAP, so I really had no idea what they felt like at all.  This time around is a different story.  I've been having Braxton Hicks since about 20 weeks, and they've been getting stronger and more frequent as the pregnancy has progressed.

A week and a half ago, when I was 35 weeks and 2 days, I went to the hospital because I was having frequent contractions (6 or more in an hour and my midwife wanted me to go in).  They had me drink water and gave me a shot to stop them.  The shot was some steroid that starts with a "t" that I have no idea how to spell, but it made me all jittery and crazy for a couple hours.  I was still having contractions (Braxton Hicks contractions are real contractions, except they don't change the cervix and they don't progress the way "real" labor contractions do) all day, but they were spread out and erratic and totally manageable.  Annoying, but not painful.

Then this week, I went back in because they were frequent again.  If I was relaxing, I had a contraction every 10-20 minutes, if I was up and walking around (say, to go pee or something) I would have a few in a row that were 2-5 mins apart, and then they'd spread back out.  When they first hooked me up to the monitors Little Miss' heart rate was high; around 209, and that freaked me out a bit.  Why was she stressed??  After relaxing and laying on my side, she went back to the normal range, between 130-170.  They didn't give me another shot because I was 36 weeks and 3 days, and full term is 37 weeks.  So they weren't going to do a whole lot to stop labor, but they definitely didn't want to encourage it.

At this point, Little Miss is fully developed and her organs are working, but these last few weeks of pregnancy are when she practices sucking/swallowing and when her lungs finish maturing.  If she were born now she could be totally fine and healthy, or she could have trouble breathing on her own, we could have challenges breastfeeding, or she could have trouble maintaining her body temperature.  There's no way to know for sure.  So, I was put on bed rest until Saturday.  37 weeks = full term which means that she's welcome to come at her leisure.  The good news is, even though I had all those contractions, my cervix isn't changing, so I wasn't in active labor.  Also today they've slowed down a LOT.  Tomorrow I'm back to full activity and then it's just a waiting game.

Of course, none of this means that she's definitely going to come before her due date.  I could very well stay pregnant up until or even past my due date.  There's really no way to know what will happen which is so frustrating sometimes, lol!

So now we're on baby watch.  She could come in the next few days, but she may wait 4-5 more weeks.  I wish real life were like the movies, where you're just going about your business and BAM your water breaks and that's the first sign of labor.  That would be so exciting!  But, of course, that almost never happens and it's a complete guessing game.  Anyway, that's all I've got.  Hopefully my next post will be announcing a new addition and not that I'm overdue and going crazy!!


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